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Post by dem bones on Dec 3, 2021 11:13:33 GMT
Richard Felix - The People's Ghost Stories (Felix-Lilley, 2020) Blurb: Richard Felix is most famous as the Historian for Living TV's Most Haunted appearing in over 120 episodes. He has been frightened of ghosts since the age of 4. Over the past twenty-eight years I have conducted Ghost walks in Derby, York, Chester, Chesterfield, Leicester, Bolton and Ashbourne. I have been involved in TV programmes including Most Haunted, Great British Ghosts, The Scariest places on Earth, The Y Files, and Ghost Detectives. Created forty-one videos of haunted counties in Great Britain and written eleven books on the subject.
I thought it was time that I compiled a book of ghost stories. A different book of ghost stories. Stories straight from the horse's mouth. Not stories handed down from generation to generation that often turn into Chinese Whispers. Not stories gleaned from hours of research in libraries or trolled from the internet. Not stories penned by writers with creative or imaginative minds. Not stories from professors, Parapsychologists or supposed experts in the paranormal field. But stories from you, "Joe Public". First-hand accounts from those who have experienced Ghosts, whatever Ghosts are! 1. Youthful experience of the late Harry Martindale while working in the cellar of the Treasurer's House, York in 1953. A trumpet blast. A Roman soldier steps out of the wall, followed by around twenty colleagues. They all appear to be about four feet tall and legless, move past him as though he isn't there. Harry falls from ladder, quits job with immediate effect. Later excavations reveal a Roman road. Author considers this "probably the best Ghost Story in the World" which does not bode well for rest of book. 2. Stephen Lilley had been a life-long sceptic in matters 'paranormal' until the sad day arrived when he had no option but to have his beloved dog, Dave, put to sleep. The following morning his walking stick - bearing a small portrait of Dave - rose of its own accord and struck him in the chest. 3. Ron Smith - The Cat's Paw: As a twelve year old, back in 1966, Ron and his dog Timmy were put to flight by a phantom black cat hiding in shadow on the stairs. 4. Jane Griffiths of Longbridge, Birmingham, believes that, in 2008, she received an early morning visit from the ghost of her two-decades dead Nan. Her late mother-in-law likewise reappeared to register her disapproval at a family squabble. 5. Charlotte Hughes on poltergeist activity, a levitating knife and a female phantom peeper in the bathroom at the Yates Wine Lodge in Ashton Under Lyne. 6. Andy Peacock is mildly disturbed by a ghost on the stairs while removing a boiler from a house in Hull. 7. The Death Watch. Neighbours keep vigil at the bedside of a dying old woman in Nottingham. Her last breath is accompanied by three ghostly kicks on the wall. Elaine Loydall believes it was her late husband come to comfort her out of life. 8. Jessica Plummer encloses two photographs purporting to show the ghost of an orphan girl in a long skirt, and her little brother being scared. 9. Kenneth J Baker - A Ghost Story: Builders are shooed away from the doorstep of a Dudley bungalow by the ghost of an old girl nine years in the grave. Apparently she's not keen on the idea of their building an extension. Brings us up to p. 36 of 206, not sure how much more I can take. There's likely a book in here somewhere, but glaring absence of editor, proof-reader, or designer, coupled with lack of index or even TOC, makes for a frustrating read. Overall impression is a book-length, monochrome issue of Take A Break - Fate & Fortune.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 3, 2021 12:31:00 GMT
Richard Felix - The People's Ghost Stories (Felix-Lilley, 2020) Brings us up to p. 36 of 206, not sure how much more I can take. There's likely a book in here somewhere, but glaring absence of editor, proof-reader, or designer, coupled with lack of index or even TOC, makes for a frustrating read. Overall impression is a book-length, monochrome issue of Take A Break - Fate & Fortune. I agree; it really needs at least an editor & proof-reader. Still I managed to more or less enjoy it (my fave was the encounter with a "naked androgynous human sized shape" on Pg. 180) but I guess I'm beyond help. Glad I used a gift card to pay for it.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2021 12:33:39 GMT
Richard Felix - The People's Ghost Stories (Felix-Lilley, 2020) Charlotte Hughes on poltergeist activity, a levitating knife and a female phantom peeper in the bathroom at the Yates Wine Lodge in Ashton Under Lyne. Hardly poltergeist activity, sounds like an average session in a Yates Wine Lodge to me. I speak from painful, hazily remembered experience.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 3, 2021 14:54:22 GMT
Holy Hell, Kev. This Felix person has written ELEVEN BOOKS and if they're all as you describe, well--the mind reels.
Photo does suggest long hours spent keeping a wary eye out at various "wine lodges" around the country. A hard job but somebody has to do it.
Holiday cheer,
Steve
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 3, 2021 16:32:49 GMT
Holy Hell, Kev. This Felix person has written ELEVEN BOOKS and if they're all as you describe, well--the mind reels. Photo does suggest long hours spent keeping a wary eye out at various "wine lodges" around the country. A hard job but somebody has to do it. Holiday cheer, Steve military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Richard_Felixrichardfelix.co.uk/He must be an amateur historian, not that it is a negative. The photo montages are terrible. It does look very New Age though. The site seems as badly proofed as the books. Terrible really, if you are trying to make a living out of it. But I don't want to be too negative, as he might be a nice man, however he should really invest in a proof reader.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 3, 2021 18:17:19 GMT
The phrase "Godfathers of the Paranormal" appears in a blurb promoting some lecture tour Mr Felix has been undertaking.
What he does to the English language seems more frightening than any of the tales he has stacked up. De gustibus, etc.
Thanks for the research, Princess--I can always rely upon you to come through.
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Dec 4, 2021 10:34:12 GMT
I agree; it really needs at least an editor & proof-reader. Still I managed to more or less enjoy it (my fave was the encounter with a "naked androgynous human sized shape" on Pg. 180) but I guess I'm beyond help. Glad I used a gift card to pay for it. I like Death by Bacon Fat. The rest, to date, have been underwhelming. His 2022 Calendar looks a must. 10. Helen Lawrence on the post-millennial haunting of Two Hands, Shard End, Birmingham, by a furniture stacking, door unhinging "freakishly tall" poltergeist in a long coat who appears only in silhouette. Helen was informed by a medium; "he's not a nice man in life or death. He's from George Orwell's times." Witness also shares first hand experience of, lesser phenomena at the Moby Dick, Gosta Green, including a phantom musical box and a helpful ghost (unless you happen to be a dog, that is). 11. Patti O' Leary - Derby Ghost Lights: While videoing a strange light as they walked home from the Derby Gaol Walk in April 2000, Patti and husband Seamus inadvertently captured to film a hooded figure "clutching the bars of the gate" from across the green. 12. Steve Bettany grew up in the Talbot Inn, Belgrave, Leicester, where his dad reckons a ghost in a great coat and cloth cap regularly ordered a drink, checked his change and disappeared through a wall. 13. Stella Pitt witnessed a ghost in top-hat and tails driving a phantom horse-drawn carriage along the Kewstoke Road toward Weston-Super-Mare. 14. Martin Gillie - Death By Bacon Fat: A Derbyshire Tale of Woe: Wailing ghost of a seventeenth century tramp, gibbeted on Beeley Moor for the murder of an old woman by pouring boiling fat down her throat. 15. Mike Bowler reports a phantom driver asleep at the wheel of a spectral Vauxhall Cavalier on the road to Kirk Hallam.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 4, 2021 16:39:20 GMT
LOLOL, Death by Bacon Fat. I warned him about them bloody chips.
Thanks for today's giggle!
H.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 5, 2021 7:13:09 GMT
16. Ron reports a routine ghost on the stairs at his home.
17. Dave of 'NOX Paranormal' relates that witnessing the emergence of the ghost of a little girl - or, possibly, an angel - from the ladies toilet at the Everest pub decided him to form a Paranormal Research group with a work colleague.
18. Jackie Hewitt of Avalon enthuses "I seem to attract ghosts!" and she certainly does! A toilet visitant, phantom horse hooves at St. Ives, a ghost cat, and a lethargic poltergeist in 'the Monk's Cell' at the George & Pilgrim Hotel, Glastonbury, are among her spectral stalkers.
19. Taryn Shrigley writes: "Hiya Richard.
My maternal grandfather was a Grenadier Guard and worked at the Tower of London. He would regularly work the night duty and walked the grounds guarding the Tower. One full moon clear night he was in one of the gardens that contained many statues. As he stood there looking across the quiet moonlit grounds the statues began to move! Their heads turned and looked straight at him as if they were alive! He was so scared that he ran from his post and I am not sure if he was asked to leave or he left voluntarily and became a policeman locally instead. .... I have attached a photo of my grandad with the plume from his bearskin to this email. "
Taryn adds that guardsmen often saw a headless woman while patrolling the parapets.
20. Jane Harper on poltergeist activity in a renovated Victorian house in Patrington, E. Yorks. Also ghost of an be-suited old man in bowler hat carrying a walking stick, as visited her four-year-old son in his bedroom. Same entity also reported independently by couple next door.
21. Amy complains of harassment by invisible presence while participating in a 'ghost vigil' at Alton Towers, and a poltergeist haunting the ladies' in Jorrocks, Derby. She asks if there have been any recorded ghost sightings at the Odeon in the Meteor Centre to explain the "weird oppressive feeling" prevents her entering.
22. Gill Pakes reports a haunted oven - gift from her in-laws - which explodes whenever she attempts to cook a cheese pie.
We're not yet a third of the way through. This is going to be another long week.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 5, 2021 14:19:15 GMT
The oven explodes whenever she attempts to bake a cheese pie. UNCANNY!!!
There's something so terribly British about all this, at least to me. Of course I'm just a Yank so what do I know.
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Dec 6, 2021 11:20:51 GMT
Merrily we roll along ....
23. Amy Garrett recalls chatting with a chain-smoking, dark-haired, greasy ghost in filthy jacket with patched sleeves who was something of a fixture in the street outside her new home in Manchester Street, Derby. An elderly relative outed the ghost as that of Amy's great-great grandfather. Its constant dragging on a spectral Woodbine once triggered the smoke alarm.
24. Arianne relates how, as a ten-year-old, she and her sister were visited in their bedroom by the spectre of an old woman in mobcap, long skirt and blouse. Possibly ghost of former tenant who died awaiting a loved never to come home.
25. Cheryl Martin relives a ghostly encounter with a brown trouser man while working in a basement storeroom at Somerset House in the Strand. She also caught of a glimpse of a man in a white dress "dashing past me and heading towards the ladies toilet." It seems several staff members had strange tales to tell of ghostly goings-on in what appears to be an comprehensively haunted building. 26. Kate Cook believes that, driving toward Bath, she passed one of Cromwell's pikesmen stood in a grass verge by the roadside.
27. Ben Stocks is mithered by a Christmas poltergeist in his Chesterfield home.
28. Anita Murphy lives in a ground floor flat built on the site of Gate Studios, Boreham Wood, as once warranted investigation by Derek Acorah's Most Haunted mob. Multiple ghosts include that of a vanishing child and a "dark figure" rushing from the bathroom.
29. Daniel Williams - King Charles I Return: According to witness, "a strong burning smell with a hint of decay" pervades the air on Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, scene of the bloodiest fighting during the Battle of Naseby. At, least, it did when he was there. The pungent reek followed him home.
30. Gill Parkes. Encounters with a psychic healer and the smily, waving ghost of a woman in "50's style clothes."
31. Sam reports a spectral 'Middle Easter Gentleman' of kindly disposition who reassured his dad after a heart attack from which he was not expected to survive, but did. Hospital staff insisted there was no such doctor among the staff. When same dad was working at an empty property in South Hams, he was frequently interrupted by the ringing of a telephone long disconnected.
32. Sonia Hutchinson advises that a weekend stay at The Richmond Arms Hotel, Tomintoul, may come complete with cabaret turns from a phantom chambermaid, yowling ghost cat, and a youthful revenant riding a spectral horse through the public bar.
33. Lisa Marie Davies, on an eventful charity sleepover at Tutbury Castle in 2007, a psychic medium, Lesley, wearing full Mary Queen of Scots costume to encourage visitors from the spirit world. Sure enough ....
Page 90 ....
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2021 10:42:59 GMT
34. Sam introduces John Henry, a North Wales ghost of many guises including monk, child, old man, and young man with sack across shoulder and trousers tied at the knees with string.
35. Ryan Spencer pitches in with an account of Electric Voice Phenomena in Ambergate, Derbyshire. At aged twelve, witness was awoken in the night by a phantom blood-curdling scream. A few years on, while experimenting with a new tape recorder in a field, he inadvertently captured the same scream to tape and a female child's voice pleading "help me, please help me."
35. Anon. Phantom footsteps in a Belper nursing home; flashing lights in a guest room at a Bed & Breakfast in Eyam; and a vague story of a lady who was twice visited by acquaintances shortly before receiving telephone notification of their deaths.
36. Stella Williamson. Two tales from Sussex. Dead granddad visits his bedroom of old; phantom monks engage in "unmelodic chanting" at Battle Abbey.
37. Graham Philpot - The Dapper Gentleman; A Spring-heeled Jack tribute act at large in the woods at Tilehurst, Reading. The Glowing Dog: A ghostly canine prevents a potentially fatal car crash at Cannington. Same stretch of road noted for its phantom hitch-hiker.
38. Clare Gallagher, on a visit to Dunstaffenage Castle. Did her friends capture a ghost on film while larking around during guided tour? Very hard to tell from evidence provided. The photo's have not reproduced particularly well in this book.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 8, 2021 17:58:20 GMT
Artist unidentified, The Bugger of Hall Lane 39. Dave Ely - Intruder at the Nursing Home: Former policeman recalls the night he and colleague 'Scotty' were called to a disturbance at an old folks' home in Loose, Maidstone, Kent. Phantom footsteps, poltergeist activity. possibly explained by death of a patient during the day. 40. Carl Hodgson, on a narrow escape from 'the Bugger of Hall Lane' (aka, 'the Boggart of Nob End) in Bolton, Lancs. 41. Stephen James wonders if his dad fortuitously exorcised a mischievous spirit tampering with his windscreen wiper by shouting at it? 42. Mark from Mickleover, Derbyshire. He wakes at 3am, looks out the bedroom window to see the little girl next door sleepwalking/ riding a scooter in the garden. He dutifully knocks up her parents, and you can guess the rest. 43. Tracey Oakes. Photo taken with a Boots disposable camera comes out rubbish - at least, that's how it might appear to the untrained eye. Derek Acorah diagnoses the "white, misty anomily" as "a vortex." 44. Caley Sampson, on the night she and her aunt drove away from a phantom nun stood by the roadside near Haggerston Castle. Photo Nicky Roberts was MacArdle 45. Nicky Roberts was MacArdle, on uncanny goings on at Derby Gaol ... at a Richard Felix Fan party in 2007!!!! " We were just setting up the food table, the music corner and karaoke table ... The helpers were all getting into costume (it was one of the many costume parties that we used to have), I decided to get my silver Sony camera out and take a few shots of the action before the guests arrived. I was down the far end nearest the condemned cell .... and i took of photo of what was 2 of the female crew in costume walking past the cabinets towards the food table in the seating table, and thought nothing of it...." It was only when Nicky got home to Birmingham and uploaded the photo's that .... Same venue, following year, a phantom dishwasher at 3am. I'm not sure orbs have been mentioned yet. They were massive circa early-mid 00s. Have they since fallen out of fashion?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 8, 2021 18:04:46 GMT
I'm not sure orbs have been mentioned yet. They were massive circa early-mid 00s. Have they since fallen out of fashion? The quality of digital cameras have improved.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 8, 2021 18:26:49 GMT
Dem, you are truly going above and beyond in so wittily summarizing those bits of fluff.
I'm still waiting for the shocking eyewitness account of the infamous ghostly budgerigar who haunts the Tooting Bec Lido.
H.
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